


A Necessary Distraction

by TheScottRyder



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: AU - Screw Virmire, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, mentions of minor character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2017-05-16
Packaged: 2018-11-01 14:32:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10923798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheScottRyder/pseuds/TheScottRyder
Summary: John Shepard's under enough stress as it is, and if Kaidan and Ashley can ease their commander's tensions just a little, well, they're not going to throw that chance away.





	A Necessary Distraction

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt fill from ollioxenfreee on my Tumblr, TheScottRyder~

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“Dr. Chakwas told me Shepard skipped dinner again,” Kaidan says as he steps into the Normandy’s elevator alongside Ashley, and he hears her sigh as she hits the button that would take them up to the captain’s quarters with more force than usual. She’s clearly annoyed, probably just as annoyed as Kaidan is worried, but it’s the kind that she gets only when she worries about John, and though she’s loathed to admit it, she’s not nearly as good at keeping some of her emotions in check as Kaidan is, especially when to came to their partner and commander.

“That’s at least two days in a row then..” Ashley muses, brow furrowing as she looks over at him. “Have you seen him at all since they got back from Rannoch?” He hadn’t, and Kaidan lets out a soft sigh as he shakes his head.

“Only in passing,” he tells her, and Ashley’s frown deepens. At first Kaidan didn’t understand it; he’d thought Rannoch had been a success. John had done what so many in the galaxy had thought impossible and ended a war that had lasted centuries, spiting all the naysayers in the process. Peace had been brokered between the Quarians and the Geth, a somewhat shaky peace, with many wounds still needing to be healed and trust to be earned to both sides, but it was a victory nonetheless.  

Yet they’d barely seen any sign of John since he returned to the Normandy yesterday afternoon, and Garrus and Tali both came back with him a little quieter than usual they hadn’t voiced any pressing concerns about Shepard to him or Ashley. They’d returned to their usual work stations, John had gone into the comm room to make his reports to Admiral Hackett, and since then he’d largely stayed holed up in his quarters, aside from a brief trip to take out some low-level Cerberus lab earlier that day, but even then he’d taken James and Liara with him instead of either of them.

“Ash.. You don’t think he’s avoiding us, do you?” Kaidan asks with worry as soon as the thought crosses his mind. Beside him Ashley frowns, and looks thoughtful for just a moment before she shakes her head and reaches over to give Kaidan’s shoulder an affectionate squeeze.

“Actually, I think this might be about Legion,” she answers, and Kaidan blinks as it clicks in his mind. He recalls Shepard’s geth companion, who’d sacrificed itself in the end to ensure the peace between Tali’s people and its own had a chance. Neither he nor Ashley had known Legion very well, but Kaidan knew enough to know that John must’ve still been feeling the loss, and though Kaidan didn’t like to admit it, John tended to keep the two of them at arm’s length for a day or so whenever he lost another ally. He’d already lost Thane, Mordin, and now Legion..

Kaidan feels some of the loss of that particular Geth unit himself despite the fact that they’d practically been strangers. Legion had been there for Shepard, fighting alongside him and the rest of his ragtag team against the Collectors when he and Ashley hadn’t, after all.. It was one of the few regrets still bothering him to this day, and Kaidan felt that he owed all of Shepard’s companions from that suicide mission a debt, and now there was one more casualty he’d never be able to repay.

“..Kaidan?”

He blinks as he becomes aware that Ashley is talking, and he turns his head to see her watching him with a look of concern. She reaches up to cup his left cheek and Kaidan leans into it with a soft sigh, a small smile tugging at his mouth when he feels her gently brush her thumb under his eye.

“You okay over there, LT?” she asks before giving him a small smile. “Should I start worrying about both of you?”

“I’m all right Ash, I’m just.. I’m worried about John,” Kaidan sighs, “You know how he can get when he’s stressed, or mourning.”

Ashley sighs quietly as she nods in understanding, being the only other person aside from Kaidan who frequently saw John at his lowest, but then she smiles over at Kaidan and leans in to press a warm kiss to his lips. He leans into it immediately, eyes closing at the soft contact of her lips, and he lets out a quiet noise of protest when she draws back, his mouth momentarily trying to chase hers. Ashley’s still smiling at him when he opens his eyes, looking away only when the elevator door slides open.

“That’s why we’re here, LT,” Ashley replies, giving his butt a playful swat before she walks out into the short hallway between the elevator and the captain’s quarters, and Kaidan shakes his head, smiling to himself as he follows her. He’s a little surprised when the door slides open at their close proximity; he’d half-expected it to be locked so maybe that was a good sign?

The room is dark though, with most of the light coming from the massive fish tank, and even that seemed to be set on the dimmest setting.

John’s sitting at his desk with his back to them. He perks up a little at the sound of his door opening but doesn’t look up from the array of data pads spread out in front of him, and Kaidan can see that most of them are reports regarding the war efforts on Palaven and Tuchanka. He exchanges a concerned look with Ashley before they stride further into the room, coming to a stop behind John’s seat, and when John finally looks back at them it’s just a brief, distracted glance.

A soft grunt is all the greeting that he gives them before his attention is back on the data pad. He looks exhausted, like he’d done nothing all day but read over the incoming casualty and damage reports. Which, knowing John, was exactly what he’d been doing.

Ashley frowns, more displeased about the state John was in than she is about the lack of his attention. She moves over to stand on John’s right side while Kaidan stays put on the left, and their commander lets out a noise of discontent when Ashley leans down to pull his data pad out of his hands, dropping it unceremoniously onto the desk.

“I’m trying to work,” John huffs, but there’s no real heat behind his words. No noticeable energy of any kind behind it, actually; he sounds like he’s running on fumes at this point, and Kaidan can feel the tension in his body as he reaches down to rub a hand along John’s shoulders. John frowns, reaching for his data pad again, and sighs when this time Kaidan pushes it further away from him. “You two ganging up on me now?”

“Only when you make us, Skipper,” Ashley replies promptly, her hand brushing against Kaidan’s as she reaches over to gently rub at John’s stiff shoulders as well. “C’mon, you’ve been up here for hours staring at these things. You need to give yourself a break.”

“I can’t, I need to finish-” John starts to argue but his words are cut off when Ashley leans down, pressing her lips to his in a slow but demanding kiss, and Kaidan smiles a little when he sees John immediately melting into it in spite of his interrupted protests. A few beats pass before Ashley breaks the kiss, and though John’s eyes still flicker over towards his discarded reports Kaidan feels the tension in his shoulders loosen just a little under his hand.

“You need to relax..” Ashley says, her eyes flicking over to Kaidan. John follows her gaze, just barely meeting Kaidan’s eyes before he’s leaning forward too, capturing John’s mouth in a soft kiss of his own. John lets out a soft breath through his nose, becoming more receptive to the kiss as the seconds pass, and Kaidan feels him brush his hand against his hip before settling onto his lower back.

Kaidan hums softly as he holds the kiss for a few long moments, one hand coming up to trace along the stubbled curve of his commander’s jaw, and he’s so tempted to deepen the kiss further before he finally breaks it and draws his head back, watching through hooded eyes as Ashley cups two fingers under the commander’s chin, turning his head back towards her and claiming his mouth once more.

Kaidan loves it when they do this, and smiles to himself as the two of them go back and forth over the course of the next few minutes, their kisses with John ranging from slow and steady to rough and heated, and John’s protests are long since forgotten by all three of them as he whimpers and groans into their mouths. Ashley traces a hand along John’s chest, nails grazing him through the fabric of his thin shirt and causing him to actually growl against her mouth, while Kaidan’s hand cups the back of John’s head when it’s his turn, controlling the angle to make their kisses that much better.

He doesn’t know how long their shared make-out lasts but Kaidan’s glad to see that John’s no longer paying attention to his reports, instead looking back and forth between the two of them with, cheeks just a little flushed and eyes visibly dilated.

It’s a damn good look on him.

Without taking their hands off of John, Kaidan and Ashley both straighten up, gazes meeting for a second before their lips crash together in a rough kiss of their own. He feels Ashley smile against his mouth, giving his lower lip a playful nip, and below them John lets out a soft groan. They draw away from each other, both smirking down at him.

“Cheaters..” John mumbles before Ashley’s mouth returns to his, but he’s smiling now as he lets himself get lost in another lazy kiss with her. Ashley breaks away from it long enough to meet Kaidan’s watchful gaze, giving him a pointed look as she gestures to John with her head, which Kaidan answers with an affirmative nod.

“Just think of it as us leveling the field,” Kaidan says as he moves around to stand directly behind John’s chair, his palms rubbing along the tops of John’s shoulders before he gives the stiff muscles a light squeeze, and the sudden groan it draws from John has both Kaidan and Ashley grinning.

“He’s right, Skipper,” Ashley purrs, kissing John between words. “We’ve gotta play dirty sometimes if we want to have a chance against that stubborn streak of yours.”

“I’m not stubb-” John starts before Ashley cuts him off again, and the kisses between are becoming noticeably more heated but Kaidan tries to focus on easing away John’s physical tensions rather than get too caught up in the show between his partners. Ashley, meanwhile, seems to notice that Kaidan is trying to keep himself focused so her kisses slow down, becoming shorter and almost chaste compared to her usual ones, the kind that leave both of her men panting for breath and dizzy from her taste.

Either way, she keeps John’s mouth occupied as Kaidan moves his hands lightly along the base of his neck, making slow but firm presses with his fingers that slowly move further out towards John’s upper arms before coming back in, and Kaidan alternates between his neck and shoulders, finding the spots with the most tension of focusing on them.

Each slow press and squeeze of his hands is drawing deep, content noises up from John’s chest. Kaidan sees Ashley smiling against his lips each time she hears one, and the combination of her pleased expression and John’s growing relaxation under their attention fills Kaidan’s chest with that deep warmth he only gets around the two of them, and he finds himself unable to keep a smile off his own face as he resumes his task.

The knots in John’s shoulders are numerous and stubborn but Ashley distracts him from any pains as Kaidan carefully works them away with his thumbs, though he does take the time to lean down and pepper some soft kisses along John’s neck and ear, and he feels another rush of satisfaction as John seems to melt under his touch, weeks of aches and tension being chased away, and as someone who received frequent head massages from the two of them Kaidan knows how good he must feel.

Finally, the massage is finished, and John breaks away from Ashley’s kissing to let out a deep sigh, sinking back into the seat. He looks a little dazed; lips beautifully swollen from the steady stream of kisses and a faint but visible blush still on his face, making the light freckles across his nose seem just a shade darker.

Kaidan smiles again, giving John’s shoulders one more satisfied rub, and he’s glad to feel that the stiffness and knots are gone now, and when he looks up at Ashley she’s beaming at him, maybe looking a bit self-satisfied with her own work but the affection for him still burns brightly in her eyes.

A light grip on his right wrist draws Kaidan’s attention back down to John, and he looks down in time to see him pulling Kaidan’s hand off of his shoulder and towards his face, pressing a few light kisses to his knuckles before he leans his head back, the top of his head brushing lightly against Kaidan’s stomach as he does, and there’s a new shine in those brilliant blue eyes of his as he looks up at the two of them.

“Thanks,” John says quietly, and he still sounds so tired but it’s different this time, like he’s sleepy now instead of just exhausted, and that was a huge difference when it came to their Shepard. “To both of you..”

“It’s not easy seeing you run yourself ragged, y’know,” Kaidan replies, reaching down to cup the left side of John’s face in his hand, and John closes his eyes as he leans into his palm. In this moment Kaidan can really see the weight that he was carrying in the furrow of his brow, and the tightness around his bagged eyes. But right now he wasn’t Commander Shepard, first human Spectre, Savior of the Citadel and the galaxy’s greatest hope against the Reapers. No. Here, in this room, he was just John, their best friend, lover, commander, and everything else in between. “It’s good to know we can help.”

“You both do so much more than just ‘help’,” John replies, and there’s an unexpected rawness to his voice that makes both him and Ashley pause as John’s gaze darts back and forth between them. “I mean it, and it probably goes without say but.. I really don’t think I could do this without you two.”

Kaidan swallows, exchanging another glance with Ashley before both of them look back down at John, who almost appears a little bashful after his confession. Kaidan wouldn’t say it out loud, lest it sound like he was mocking what was really a deep moment between them, but the semi-embarrassed look on John’s face was rather cute, and Kaidan knows that he and Ashley both fall a little harder in love with this man.

“You won’t have to, Skipper,” Ashley finally says, giving John another kiss before drawing back so that Kaidan can do the same, cupping his other cheek as she does, and Kaidan feels John smile against his lips as he leans into both her touch and his kiss. “We’re not going anywhere.”

“Stuck with us ‘til the end, Shepard,” Kaidan agrees, giving John’s lips another soft kiss before he wraps an arm around John’s shoulders, and beside him Ashley does the same thing, both of them bringing their boyfriend into a warm hug, and John lets out another content noise as Kaidan slips his other arm around Ashley’s waist, pulling her closer to both of them and letting their embrace become even snugger.

They’d get John over to the bed eventually, convince him that going back to his reports could wait a few hours since they hadn’t come in through any emergency channels, or that they’d just read over them in John’s absence while he tried to get some rest, but for the moment Kaidan is content to just stand there and take a moment to relax with the two loves of his life, soft sighs and gentle kisses still being shared between them.

He didn’t like to think about it, especially when he was enjoying a peaceful moment in their arms, but the reality was that Kaidan didn’t know how many of these moments the three of them had left and he wasn’t intending to waste a single one. He’d had enough regrets and missed opportunities for now.

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End file.
